The oddness of prices

It turns out to be cheaper to take Indian-Pacific across the Nullarbor than to fly, if you’re a pensioner.

Would actually have been marginally ($12) cheaper to fly SYD-ADL than to train, but at the last minute some eager little critter trumped the last available special fare, leaving me to book SYD-ADL on the train (too late & an inconvenient time) or settle for second-be$t.

I think this speaks to the margins left in the cut-throat airline business as much as it does to the politics of the situation, as those airlines which post the actual fare costs show that over half of the cost to them is taxes & duties of various sorts — so less than $50 of a $100 fare is actually for flying the aeroplane — a bit skinny a markup for my comfort.

Another bonus (sorta) is that stopping at a mid-point is — most unlike an airline — an economical thing to do.

In another odd fact, the drop in price from hopping off the I-P at Kalgoorlie is greater than the discount cost of a Prospector ticket KGI-PER.

Comments

Leon RJ Brooks said…

One airline oddness: a Sunday QF401 at today’s prices costs $233 & takes 3 hours to cross; QF735 costs $166 & takes 1.4 hours to cross, so it leaves over an hour later but arrives 10 minutes earlier for 71% of the price.

I no understand him?

07 February, 2008 17:47

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